


A Publication On Magic

by orphan_account



Series: all of our magics [7]
Category: Fic Meta - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 00:26:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 3,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14726477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: FROM THE COLLECTED JOURNALS AND INFORMATIVE TEXTS OF SEVERAL MAGICIANS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: A PUBLICATION DETAILING MAGIC, MAGICIANS, AND THEIR PLACE IN THE CULTURE OF THE PREVIOUS CENTURY.WRITTEN BY MAGNOLIA’S LUCK; DEDICATED TO THE EUCLIDEAN DAMSEL: MY FRIEND, YOU MAKE LIFE A STORY WORTH READING.





	1. PREFACE

**Author's Note:**

> Because it's the fic's one year anniversary:  
> This is an in-universe text meant to clear up some information that the series wasn't clear on. It's basically the fantastic beasts and where to find them/quidditch through the ages/tales of beedle the bard trio from the harry potter series, except it should be updated and edited as the series brings up new magic.  
> Apologies to all non-french speakers who had to google translate their way through the fic, but hey, hopefully you learned something!  
> Lastly, if there's a part of the series' worldbuilding that confuses you, please don't hesitate to leave a comment! I'll go ahead and update this work/edit the series to explain things that anyone doesn't get.

Admittedly, I am not the best when it comes to writing. Nevertheless, I was requested to write a preface to this grand work, so it seems I must resort to introduction by explanation. Apologies to all of my friends who suggested otherwise.

Magic is performed, by humans, through incantations. These incantations are not known to be restricted to or from any known language, and every observed culture has some sort of magical tradition. The human inherentness of magic has long since been compared to language, though non-sentient non-humans have also been observed to contain or utilize their own, unique magic.

Attempts to discover the source of magic through scientific means have been made in vain. This has lead some to believe- pulling in supporters from the age of the Romans and from the modern age- that magic is a gift from some sort of divinity.

Hecate was a popular possible benefactor pre-Christianity. Her cult, though it has dwindled significantly, continues to persist to date because of her connection to the magic arts. However, her cult has a strong reputation of being involved in the invention of dark magics, due to Hecate’s associations with necromancy and demon summoning. There is a long-standing folk legend that Hecate’s cult is responsible for the creation of blood magic, but it is largely apocryphal- modern evidence points towards demon scholars creating the theory behind it and human mages refining those theories through practice.

The fall of the Roman Empire, and with it the rise of Christianity, gave discredibility to the notion of Hecate’s role in gifting humanity with magic. Most Christians believe that the phrase ‘God created Man in His image’ was to be taken as proof that humanity was given magic at the time of its creation. Hebrew scholars interpret the same text differently, and with more disagreement. While one theory states that magic was used by their god to shape the universe and therefore should not be used on the blessed Seventh day, another theory states that magic _was_ what blessed the Seventh day, therefore it should be used _only_ on that date.

However, peoples besides these listed have creation myths for humanity’s magic, and not all of them can be correct. But which one is correct is not the matter of discussion. The true matter is the ubiquity of magic, and that all humans have it to an extent. This is why the study of magic is one of the most important, though it does not explain the reluctance found from the seventeenth to eighteenth century to produce modern publications on the magical arts.

For it has been twenty or so years since this sensational trend of encyclopedic publications first began the Publication Age, I must stress the revolution of knowledge that it had brought for younger readers. Incantations could only be found in languages long since dead. Nowadays, it isn’t uncommon to substitute a Latin spell for an English one, but in the Pre-Publication Age, it wouldn’t have been possible. No research had been done in what made magic _magic_ until our present nineteenth century. We only blindly followed the teachings of traditions from an age where _magic_ and _witchcraft_ had no difference in meaning, except for that even the utterance of the word “witchcraft” could bring death upon some of our most powerful and clever sorceresses.

However dark this time may be, the latter half of the eighteenth century still holds a certain affection in my heart, and I cannot help but aid in a research project that will perhaps reflect the nostalgia I feel for the nursery of my magical education. This collection of journals and analyses involves some of my own work, and even more created by other skilled mages I’ve had the pleasure of knowing intimately.

So, I welcome readers to a look into one of the most notable ages of magic, in the hopes that they might be drawn to it as much as I still am.

-E.H.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can you guess who wrote the preface (eyes emoji)


	2. BOND MAGIC

Bond magic is one of the rarest magics. This is because it isn’t truly voluntary. This is because it lasts a lifetime. This is because most people don’t know they are under its enchantment. This is because of a lot of reasons.

Perhaps one of the oldest forms of magic, bond magic is the linkage of souls. It occurs when two individuals share a deep relationship, platonic or romantic, even familial. Complete faith and trust in one another is required for relationships to grow a bond, though are not the only deciding factor. 

It is unclear what special abilities bonded individuals have, though it has been observed that, to basic magic detectors, their magic becomes indistinguishable. However, to more advanced sensors and to creatures such as demons, their magic remains distinct. 

Once two are bonded, they remain bonded for life. Though some may have arguments over the course of their lifetime, there are no known instances of two bonded individuals losing their bonded status, even temporarily. Bond magic has been likened to soulmate status because of this, but scholars disagree. Soulmate status is presented in literature- for it has  _ no  _ basis magically- as being inherent and present from birth. Bondeds, on the other hand, acquire their bonds through mutual trust and affection.

Since the concept of bond magic did not reach the public eye until  _ The Publication,  _ eighteenth century knowledge was limited to skilled scholars and so did not deviate much from fact. However, until  _ The Publication,  _ death was a dark subject where truth seldom followed.

See, when one’s bonded dies, they are visited by an image of the bonded. Eighteenth century scholars believed that the image was a mere hallucination. The prescribed cure was a potion, which must be taken lest the living bonded go insane. 

But  _ The Publication  _ famously gave a medium’s insights into deathly matters, and famously gave three case studies of bonds, seen personally by the author, when most are lucky to witness just one. It was explained that the visitation was, indeed, by the ghost of the departed. The potion was taken by the ghost as a sign that they should leave the living partner to live their life. However, this could be ignored, if the ghost so chose.

But of course, the visitation is only followed by one of the most hollowing experiences a human may go through: a Shattering. At the moment of their bonded’s death, the living bonded undergoes an attack of panicked hysteria; there is the unshakeable feeling that something is so wrong that it is impossible to ignore. Those I have interviewed have said that they thought the world was ending, or that they were falling with both feet on the ground. But it all ends the same way- with sudden calm, but the unmistakable feeling of an exit.

The Shattering occurs because bond magic exchanges something between souls that cannot be measured but which is surely there. And when one’s bonded dies, something must be ripped out of their very soul, something incorporated intricately and indiscriminately to their own that only a Shattering can remove it. And then, once that piece of soul is brought to the departed’s, a ghost will form.

The Living Ghost gave a brief description of what occurs once the living bonded dies. I don’t believe I can do justice to solely paraphrase the author’s words, so I will end this section only with a quotation from  _ The Publication. _   
  


_ I have once before seen the reunification of two Bonded ghosts. I accompanied the first of them to die, while another ghost led the newly dead to us. It had been a premeditated death, so I and my charge were waiting for the moment his Bonded would cease in his life*. I remember clearly my charge jumping up suddenly, sensing the death, and running with more cause than I would ever see from another person. … We then stopped in a clearing, which was to be the meeting place …  The two of them, once reunited, almost ceased to be seperate, reminiscing their shared memories before dancing mesmerizingly, and finally kissing, after which their forms turned into white smoke and blew away with the wind. _

*Here, the Living Ghost makes a deliberate decision to reveal that both bonded are men, even though the bond is described as a romantic one. While I do find importance in keeping the original word of The Living Ghost, I shall not delve into the debate over these lines almost fifteen years late.  
  


For more reading on Bond magic, see  _ Someone to Say Goodbye To _ and  _ The Meticulous Art of the Alternate Manifest. _


	3. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPELLBOOKS AND TOMES, AND THE EXACT DEFINITION OF PUBLICATIONS

Spellbooks and Tomes are two dated forms of getting magical information. After publications became popular, they were largely abandoned.

Spellbooks are magical in nature. They contain information on magic, but also are heavily enchanted themselves. They can be extremely dangerous to someone who does not know what they are doing. They were common in Europe and in the Americas.

Tomes, meanwhile, have little to no enchantments on them. Not only this, but the knowledge in them tends to be diversified and added to by subsequent owners. Typically, they are passed down through families, and copies can be made so all siblings can inherit their parents’ Tome. These are common among former non-European territories of the past Roman empire, especially in Western Asia. 

Publications now vastly outnumber both Tomes and spellbooks. A publication collectively refers to any modern book on magic or magical creatures that is printed and intended for mass consumption. They are more often than not anonymous, published under a pseudonym, and traditionally include a dedication to one or two persons, who are also given a pseudonym. 

The origin of publications resides in, as with most modern magic,  _ The Publication,  _ by The Living Ghost. While formally known as  _ A Publication On Alternate Manifest And The Influences Of The Dead,  _ it became known among most circles first as  _ A Publication on the Dead.  _ However, after the boom of imitation prints, the text became known as  _ The _ Publication, since it was typically the one being referred to in the absence of specification.    
  


For more reading on spellbooks, Tomes, and publications, see  _ The Meticulous Art of the Alternate Manifest. _


	4. DERIVATIVES OF HUMAN MAGIC

Human magic is separate and distinct from the magic of other species. However, there are individuals who do not seem to have magic similar to the majority of the population. These deviations can be divided into a few categories. 

Magical stagnance is a term used to collectively refer to anybody whose magic is weak enough to be detrimental to daily life. This includes a lack of magic or simply weak magic, so it’s a relatively wide umbrella term. 

Alternate Manifest is more common than magical stagnance, though it was more commonly hidden as magical stagnance.  _ The Publication  _ must be mentioned again. Until the text was released, those with alternate manifest were almost revered. The reason why varied among the region. Particularly in America, kidnappings were common, for several reasons. 

For one, magic performed with alternate manifest was in high demand to be seen, so popular entertainers and owners of theatre companies often attempted to befriend or recruit those with alternate manifest; these attempts typically failed, and so the most extreme recruiters turned to force. More so in Europe than America, the possession of alternate manifest has a negative religious context, so fundamental extremists have long since made futile- and often fatal- attempts to remove alternate manifest from those who have it.

Until  _ The Publication,  _ there was very little knowledge about alternate manifest, besides the fact that it existed. Today, scholars know much more about this phenomenon than in the eighteenth century. Then, all was known was that certain individuals could not perform regular spells but had certain abilities of their own. Now, we know that having alternate manifest is caused by an individual being born with magic that can’t be classified as human, and so can’t cast human spells. Between person to person, alternate manifest is unique and differs widely, though some common themes tend to repeat themselves. Mediumship is one of the most prominent examples, again thanks to  _ The Publication. _

Most readers will be surprised by my continuation of this section. Among the general public’s knowledge, there are but two forms of derivatives of human magic. Throughout the eighteenth century, this was accepted as fact also. However, rumor and myth has long since existed of those given a gift by fate itself.

Magic’s favor has long since been shrouded in mystery. The most reputable Pre-Publication Age source I can find claims ‘magic’s favor’ is given to an individual who begets a child by Hecate. However, the Publication age brought about a few obscure texts investigating the phenomenon of a potency of magic, causing young children to cast magic with only a burst of emotion, or individuals being able to quadruple the effects of a certain spell with no effort at all. It has only been within the last year or so that scholars have begun to connect these events with magic’s favor.    
  


For more reading on deviations on human magic, see  _ The Meticulous Art Of the Alternate Manifest, Un Hommage, War, Guardians, And Reimaginings (Or, The Greatest Motivator),  _ and  _ Just A Few Hundred Words In The Wind. _


	5. BLOOD MAGIC

It is not in the interest of many to do research on such dark magic, not even in the Publication Age. 

Blood magic, or sanguinary magic, is what it sounds like. The mage wanting to use blood magic must cut themself open and use some of their own blood to make markings and sigils, usually on themself. 

Most likely, blood magic was first created in theory by demons. After being Summoned, a demon must’ve taught a human the theory. The human probably put the spell into practice and perfected it before sharing it with other magicians. 

Largely, blood magic offers an exclusive set of results. This has led to those results having the evil connotation against them as much as blood magic itself does. That’s the reason it’s important to learn more than one language; an insanguinary translation spell is just as evil as a sanguinary one.

A mark of blood magic is that it drains the user. Typically, insanguinary magic does not drain the user unless healing magic is being performed. However, since blood magic uses the life force of the user rather than drawing from nature- in clearer terms, the power of the spell is drained from the user- the caster is much more affected by blood magic than if they used insanguinary magic. This drain-effect can, if used too often, affect the way that other magical species sense a person’s magic. Many who can sense it tend to relate it to a scar on one’s soul.   
  


For more reading on blood magic, see  _ War, Guardians, And Reimaginings (Or, The Greatest Motivator). _


	6. DEMONS

I first want to say about demons that not all of them are inherently evil. Yes, of course a number of them are, but there are also many evil humans. 

Perhaps the strangest things about demons is our own insistence to refer to them as ‘magical creatures.’ After all, they are no more creatures than we are. Demons are, essentially, humans with a uniform alternate manifest who live in another plane of existence, unless Summoned.

Summonings  _ must  _ be performed by a human. It is possible for demons to adapt human magic for their own use, but in this case, only humans are able to perform a summoning.

Longstanding cultural jokes enforce the stereotype that Latin is the sole magic-language used to summon demons, especially in the eighteenth century. However, there are actually many other languages demon spells can be found in. 

While humans are limited to the use of incantations, demons have no such restriction on their magic use. Their magic is utilized how a human might utilize an arm. Once they learn to control it, their magic becomes an extension of their body.

Another recognizable feature of demons is what is called a mark (une marque). Every demon, ever, has had a unique tattoo somewhere on their skin, reportedly representative of their personality. They can be as simple as a few lines or look as if it were an engraving done by a practiced artist. It’s made with solid black lines, with no gray. 

Now, readers unfamiliar with demonology may wonder why I put a French translation for “mark.” While it has been a closely guarded secret among demons, most everybody who knows a demon will know that the home of demons is France. While demons reside in a seperate but geographically identical world, their population is almost entirely concentrated inside the borders of our France. Largely, our France is made up of demons who were summoned and, for whatever reason, did not wish to return to their France. In fact, France is so closely tied to demons’ home of Hell that the two are collectively referred to as Frahencell. Both 'our' and 'their' France use this name.

A unique characteristics of demons is the difficulty it takes to curse them. Their names are especially important to them; any name they accept as belonging to them, including nicknames, are magically linked to them. Combined with the image of their marks, demons can become the target of spells no matter the distance between them and the caster. Special wards were created during the French Revolution in order to protect nobles who had not taken steps to hide their names or marks, but the wards were also used to imprison.    
  


For more reading on demons, see  _ War, Guardians, and Reimaginings (Or, The Greatest Motivator),  _ and  _ A Few Hundred Words In The Wind. _


	7. SPELLS VS RITUALS

(The page is torn. Only the bottom portion is legible.)

 

For more reading on Spells v Rituals, see  _War, Guardians, And Reimaginings (Or, The Greatest Motivator)._


	8. BATTLE MAGIC

“Battle magic” does not have a specific definition, though it is associated with several characteristics.

Typically, battle magic is a complex series of magic performed before combat in a military altercation. The results of the magic are to be utilized throughout the battle, or used when a certain event occurs. 

Extravagance was near-integral to battle magic. The idea behind the extravagance tended to follow the lines of instilling shock or fear into the enemy; however, personal journals often relate the extravagance of battle magic to the need to impress fellow soldiers. First-person accounts I have read have thoroughly linked battle magic to competition for the most marvelous or inventive set of magic.

Most of all, battle magic is destructive. Either that, or it serves to aid in destruction. Its offensive use outside of war is unheard of, even in the most tense times. This has perhaps been due to a certain fear of what uncontrolled use of battle magic may bring. That, and even the most foolish, uneducated, away-from-it-all country peasant would recognize the blight which widespread battle magic might bring.    
  


For more reading on battle magic, see  _ War, Guardians, and Reimaginings (Or, The Greatest Motivator). _

**__**


	9. ADVANCED TERMS

As this text is meant for beginners of the magical enterprises, I had made the decision not to include complex terms typically found in more technical texts. However, as I was once a beginner myself, I thought it prudent to include a list of terms that will be found in advanced texts.

 

Affect- The maximum distance the caster may be from the target of magic. The only magic that has an affect is that which has a specific target in mind.

Situation Affect- The area in which a spell is in effect. The only magic that has a situation affect is that which affects a certain area and anything which might enter that area.

Charge- A buildup or storage of magic. Impeded charges are created when magic is filtered through some object with magical properties, such as a purifying gemstone, before being placed in charge. Unimpeded charges are created when magic is passed directly from the environment or caster whilst being placed in charge.

Catalyst- An object through which some sort of magic is performed. Often, it has a charge.

  * First Catalyst- a material taken from your own body.
  * Second Catalyst- Any _pre-enchanted_ material of origin not of your own.
  * Third Catalyst- All remaining organic materials.
  * Fourth Catalyst- Everything else, namely remaining inorganic materials.



 

(The rest of this page is torn.)

 

For more reading on advanced magic terms, see  _ A Few Hundred Words In The Wind. _

**Author's Note:**

> if you have anything you're confused about leave a comment and i'll clarify it in this work! thank you for reading!  
> 


End file.
